French troops take Islamist stronghold in Mali

Malian soldiers aboard a vehicle mounted with a machine gun in a street the central town of Diabaly.

AFP: Eric Feferberg

France's defence ministry says a group of French-led troops in Mali have taken control of the northern town of Gao.

The troops moved into Gao, a stronghold of Islamist fighters since it was seized last April, after earlier securing the airport and a strategic bridge to the south.

France says troops from Niger and Chad will move into the town to help secure it and that the town's mayor, Sadou Diallo, would arrive in Gao from the capital Bamako.

"A first contingent of Malian, Chadian and Niger troops are presently in Gao to help secure the town," a Malian security source told AFP by telephone from the town.

"The French and African forces are in 100 per cent control of the town of Gao," another Malian security source said.

"There is popular rejoicing and everyone is very happy."

The French-led forces had overnight seized Gao's airport and a key bridge on the southern entrance of the town, held by the Al Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).

An alliance of Tuareg rebels who wanted to declare an independent homeland in the north and hardline Islamist groups seized the northern towns of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in April last year after a coup in Bamako.

The Islamist groups include MUJAO, Ansar Dine - a homegrown Islamist group - and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, of which MUJAO is an offshoot.

The Islamists then sidelined the Tuaregs to implement their own agenda. Their harsh interpretation of Islamic sharia law has seen transgressors flogged, stoned and executed, and they have forbidden music and television and forced women to wear veils.

Meanwhile, there have also been allegations of abuse by members of the Malian army.

The UN director for Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion, says the French must be vigilant.

"They are fighting alongside a very abusive army so they have to uphold international principles and make sure that the abuses we have seen over the last few days do not happen again," he said.

The UN refugee agency says more than 7,000 civilians have fled the country since early this month to escape the fighting.